Alaska and Hawaii

"Legislation would transfer prized sections to an Alaska Native company for logging. Native leaders say it's long overdue. Preservationists are outraged."

"The Minerals Management Service has withheld information from regional staff in Alaska and has not had sufficient guidelines in place to analyze offshore drilling risks in the region, a government audit shows."

"Shell Oil has crossed another hurdle in its plans to drill three exploratory petroleum wells in the Arctic Ocean. The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday it had approved a clean air permit for Shell to operate its drilling ship in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast."

"State employees began an aerial wolf hunt on the Yukon border on Tuesday in what officials describe as an effort to preserve caribou for shooting by hunters."

"A federal judge has thrown out an industry lawsuit that could have led to more logging and road building in Alaska's Tongass National Forest, the nation's largest federal forest."

"Environmentalists, fishermen and others in the Copper River region are spearheading a new effort to boost citizen monitoring of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline."

"Search warrants served on two Cook Inlet oil facilities last week were based on federal environmental regulators' suspicions that Chevron Corp. had knowingly violated its air pollution permits and made false statements, court filings show."

"After the spill, the crude oil was expected to biodegrade and wash away from Prince William Sound. But that didn't happen."

"U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke declared a commercial fishing disaster for Yukon River king salmon Friday following two years of poor runs, fishing restrictions and bans."